LONDON, William Blake

I wander thro' each charter'd street,

Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackening Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse

London by William Blake is one of the most important poems of the turn of the
eighteenth century in England because it shows with keen eye which was the state of the
most important city on Earth back at that time: London. Through a very simple
rhythmical pattern based on quatrains and iambic tetrameters, Blake tells us about a
casual walk across the city and the streets of London. He wants us to know, to perceive,
how terrific and sad the city was back then.
The first stanza stands out because of the word chartered, which automatically
implies that London was a corrupt, capitalist city where public elements such as the
streets and the river belonged to somebody; thus, the wanderer does not feel that the
floor he is stepping on belongs to him as a citizen, but that he is invading the property of
others who, for sure, will not want him to be there. Besides, he pays attention to the
faces of the people: how they show signs of weakness and of pity. In some sense, Blake
is presenting us a derelict portrait of London, swallowed up by an early and emergent
capitalism, where money is the basis of daily life and there is no escaping from it. This
aspect of Blakes poetry, as we can see, is considerably contemporary.
The second stanza is, perhaps, more impressive and striking than the previous
one. There, we can perceive at first-hand, by means of repetition, the oppressive
character of the city; Blake uses repetition as a rhetorical device in order to emphasize,
to bestow lines with increasing power, to try to convey the feeling of oppression, of
impossibility of liberation as best as he can. He perceives repression not just in the
physical background of the city, but also in the voices of both men and children; he also
uses the word ban, as an expansion of the previously mentioned chartered streets
and river, to blame it again on the controlling power, who is able to create mind-forged
manacles within the minds of the people. Therefore, what people are in London is
nothing but prisoners within a cage, able to move within a very restricted space and not
allowed to exercise their right of freedom. Moreover, people are not apparently

manacled: they are psychologically trapped and many of them do not even know. The
typical rusty sound of manacles is not apparently listened to; however, Blake says that,
if you pay attention and look at the souls of the people, you will be able to hear it within
them.
In the third stanza, Blake makes use of color to reinforce the theme he has been
exploring throughout the two previous stanzas. First of all, he introduces the chimneysweepers, those children who were forced, due to their small size, to crawl into
chimneys and to clean them. As a result of that healthily dangerous activity, they usually
died within the age of ten years, if not before. Therefore, this reference automatically
suggests the black color which stains the interior of chimneys, color that he will be
using also in the next line, referring to the blackening Church; however, in this case,
the color is not material but metaphorical: he uses the black color to imply that the
Church is growing corrupted and perverted, thus losing its innocent and pure character.
White color is usually attached to the Church; nevertheless, Blake wants to degrade the
image of the Church in London at that time. Besides, he also makes reference to how
soldiers were dying fighting for their country. For that, he uses the word blood, which
suggests the red color. It is important to say that here Blake makes use of metonymy: by
Church he refers to Christian religion and by Palace he refers to the monarchy and
the government. That way, Blake avoids direct reference to the institutions and powers
he wants to blame everything on.
Finally, in the fourth stanza, Blake moves towards a night scene where he wanders
the street where he sees the harlots suffering because they are pregnant and ill due to
sexual relationships. This is the most corrupted side of London, as Blake wants to
emphasize when he says at the beginning of the stanza But most through midnight
streets I hear. An important point that Blake explores here, which is also very
contemporary, is the appearance of venereal diseases: how the increasingly amount of
prostitution at that time in London was the cause of the spreading of these diseases.
Also, Blake is introducing here what later on during the Victorian Age would be called
the double-standards: in a marriage, most couples were openly very happy at the eyes
of society, but when nobody saw them, men slipped away during the nights and
frequented brothels and places where prostitutes were. That is why they blight with
plagues the Marriage hearse.
ENGLAND IN 1819, Percy Bysshe Shelley
An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King;
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,mud from a muddy spring;
Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know,
But leechlike to their fainting country cling
Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow.
A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field;
An army, whom liberticide and prey
Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield;
Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay;
Religion Christless, Godlessa book sealed;

A senate, Times worst statute, unrepealed

Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

England in 1819 is a sonnet published by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which deals

with a similar topic as London by Blake, but Shelley definitely adopts a different
perspective. Whereas Blakes poem is more descriptive, using melancholy and sadness
as a rhetorical source, Shelley turns to vindication by means of strong, straightforward
language. Definitely, England in 1819 exposes the causes of the countrys state and
London presents its effects. The poem is composed by means of iambic pentameters
following an ABABABCDCDCCDD rhyming pattern.
The first six lines of the sonnet point directly towards the source of all the evils
and problems of England: the monarchy. By means of a sharp language, Shelley says
that the king is old, mad, blind, despised and dying, all of them negative adjectives.
Also, he says that princes are mud from a muddy spring; that is, that they are dirt who
come from more dirt. He is here comparing monarchic figures with insects. Moreover,
he says that the rulers are leechlike; that is, that they absorb everything their country
is willing and unwilling to give them and then they drop dead, satiated, after a lifetime
of endless sucking. According to Shelley, they are people who are willing to get the
most of their country and its resources to have a long, unmolested life whereby their
subjects and citizens are dying in the streets from innumerable illnesses and causes. As a
rhetoric resource, it is important to note the paronomasia in line 6 with blind in blood,
figure which has a powerful meaning inasmuch as it shows how princes and kings are
both full of gold and resources and also how their hands are stained with the blood of
the people they have cause to die.
Then, the next eight lines are dedicated to the rest of the elements that compose
the portrait of that derelict England of 1819. By means of another paronomasia, we can
see how people are starved and stabbed; that is, the people of England are not
enjoying their country but are suffering because of it. And the army, instead of
defending the country and being useful, is a two-edged sword, something that is not
good for the country. The army becomes a problem instead of a help. Apart from that,
Shelley does not shrink and wants to expose all the criminals, all the origins of the
countrys present state: the Church. In his opinion, religion in England is Christless,
Godless; that is, religion has lost its most important reference and is now operating as
an individual force lead by itself. It has become a power which dominates and controls
England instead of peaceful and reasonable support. This echoes Blakes line when he
says the blackening Church appals; that is, Church is no longer pure but it is a
corrupted institution whose views are far from people and God and closer to money and
power. Finally, the last two lines introduce the possibility of hope: a glorious Phantom
that may resurrect to save the country. This line, although it is not specified what or
whom is referring to, is extremely similar to Wordsworths London 1802, where he
calls upon John Milton who was, in opinion of Wordsworth, the most brilliant figure
of English history to save the country and get it back to his time. However, many

critics have pointed out that Shelleys reference, if any, is not intentional and that he did
not try to echo Wordsworths poem. It is, indeed, a most surprising coincidence, but a
coincidence after all.